


Underground

by littlestarlight44



Series: Wanda Maximoff Series [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Family, Childhood Memories, Childhood Trauma, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Wanda Maximoff, Jewish Wanda Maximoff, NO character deaths, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romani Wanda Maximoff, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Vision - Freeform, Wanda Maximoff & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Wanda Maximoff & Sam Wilson Friendship, Wanda Maximoff & Steve Rogers Friendship, Wanda Maximoff Needs a Hug, Warning: panic attacks, homeless wanda and pietro maximoff, tony stark redeems his wrongs, trapped wanda maximoff, traumatic events, wanda has a panic attack, wanda has been through a lot okay, wanda is trapped, wanda maximoff & tony stark friendship, wanda needs her avengers family, wanda suffers from ptsd, wanda suffers from trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29465508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlestarlight44/pseuds/littlestarlight44
Summary: {Takes place a few months after AOU} When the city is under attack, Wanda gets caught in the crossfire and ends up underground, forcing her to relive one of the worst and most traumatic moments of her life.
Series: Wanda Maximoff Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2164266
Comments: 3
Kudos: 53





	Underground

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think! May possibly add a fluff chapter onto this.

Wanda watched the large, building sized reptile fall into a trance as she forced her scarlett tendrils around it, encasing him and squeezing to keep him from moving and destroying any other buildings in Queens. A deep, hiss of warning and anger came from the trapped, giant Komodo Dragon that felt like knives going along Wanda’s eardrums. She could feel the mutated animal try to fight back, but she tightened her hold on it, gritting her teeth.

“Anytime now!” Wanda calls, not even sure Rhodey heard her, but in relief a second later he is sending a blast stream down on the beast. An ugly sound comes from the animal. Whatever the Dragons got into at the lab to cause this, along with an intense growth spirt the same amount it grew was the same amount that its skin became more durable like a tank. Rhodey flies down along the animal, trying to cause as much damage as he could. 

She starts to feel the animal go a little more limp as the sound intensifies and something that is not quite smoke begins to come from the line of fire Rhodey made. Wanda continues her tight grip on the mutation until it falls, either weak or injured, its eyes close and it doesn’t seem like it would be getting back up. 

“I think we got it,” Wanda brought a hand up to speak into the com before she looked up at Rhodey. One down, two to go. 

Now that she was no longer focused on the immediate attack, she can hear the others.

“Tony, how are you guys over there?” Rhodey asks, turning towards a sudden crash that came blocks away. Wanda levitated herself up to see the tail of another Komodo Dragon trying to bat Tony away as and Vision tried to attack it, some of the others likely on the ground team, the hissing sound of the animal echoing across the sky. 

“Not great,” Tony responded, sounding almost stressed.

“Still tracking the third Dragon,” Natasha responded. “Steve managed to get it heading towards some abandoned buildings.”

“I’ll head towards the third one and try to hold it off until you can help,” Wanda told them, already turning around and hoping they would agree - or at least not argue against it. There was no need to search for movement; she could already see the trail of broken and damaged buildings of where it went.

“We’ll be fast, Wanda,” Rhodey spoke through the coms again and Wanda briefly looked over her shoulder at him to nod. “On my way to you, Tony,” He and Wanda barely gave a nod to each other before flying off to their new destination.

“Steve, Sam, and I will check the buildings for civilians,” Natasha reported quickly, signalling she was moving quickly again. 

Wanda quickly followed the trail of damage until she could clearly see movement as she got past some of the taller high-rises. Along the way she spotted Steve driving his motorcycle down towards a tilting building with Natasha sitting behind him and Sam flying behind them.

The hissing sound got louder every second she came closer. God those things moved fast and those heavy feet did not leave any mercy for the older buildings that got in its way. Thankfully, just as Natasha said, it was clear that the section the animal was in now was full of old and abandoned buildings and factories. 

As the large animal moves around, its height just barely makes it over the top of the buildings and its long tail makes just as much damage as its feet as it swings around and knocks into buildings. Since these ones were older and not properly maintained, she can already see them on the verge of falling after the tail swings into them even at a casual push.

Slowing, Wanda holds out her arms and gets into an upright levitated position and holds out her hands as she gets closer. Almost right over it, scarlett tendrils leave her hands again as she goes to wrap them around the animal. 

This one was much more reactive than the other she had been working with. Perhaps part of the thing that went wrong was that he actively saw her magic reach out to him while the other didn’t. The instant her magic touched or even got close to the animal it was already in explosive rage. It almost jumped to turn faster, tail taking a whole building out. Wanda barely had time to hear it begin to hiss before it was charging towards her and her heart immediately began pounding. In the back of her mind Wanda was sure she heard Vision mention something about how these things could chase after deer when they were watching some commercial on the television one day. Whatever speed those things had before at their normal size, their large bodies hadn’t slowed them at all and Wanda had to quickly move out of the way. 

The strength of her power along what had started to wrap around the Komodo Dragon began to dissipate when she was forced to move to the side, almost hitting a building in her speed before she managed to stop herself and try to refocus her magic. The mutated animal didn’t let up though and continued charging. Wanda lifted herself and began to move off to the side again, but the animal turned too quickly before she saw the large black tail flying towards her. 

Wanda barely saw it in the corner of her eye before feeling something slam against her chest so hard it knocked the wind completely out of her and a second later her back hit something just as solid but she wasn’t awake long enough to feel it ache. 

* * *

The sudden itch of fire along her lungs and throat was what spurred Wanda to awaken into a coughing fit. Her lungs felt like fire as she tried to cough whatever was in them but that only led to more dust and dirt flying into her mouth and that didn’t help anything much.

After a few hard coughs, actually feeling chest pain in trying it, Wanda was finally able to catch her breath. She tried to relax her breathing, her chest heaving up and down from the coughs still.

Slowly she opens her eyes to take a look around, confused at how cold it was and dusty only to realize that she couldn’t see anything. She blinks a few times, confused slightly before she tries to rub her eyes only to get the same results.

A creeping horror begins to bubble from her stomach and pry at her throat. 

It was black, completely pitch dark. Wherever she was, no light could get in.

Wanda immediately stumbled to her feet, feeling the slightest ache in her shoulder but her fear was beginning to overwhelm any pain that she had. Her head almost hit the top of something and she immediately cowered down slightly. Bringing a hand up, the ice in her veins only intensified when she felt a mixture between jagged brick pieces that were somehow holding up and pure concrete. 

Heart rate increasing, Wanda took a hurried step forward, hands out in front of her in search to grasp something, though she didn’t know if that would make her feel any better or worse. She stumbled over something thick and tried to look down and see what it was only to see complete darkness again. The fear that had started to bubble in her stomach was slowly growing with every step she took, almost tripping over things before she realized this was completely uneven ground, pieces fallen on top of each other to make a semi platform. It slanted in multiple places. Every time she opened her mouth to breath, her erratic heart begging for more air she tasted the dust and immediately snapped her jaw shut again and after a while Wanda no longer felt the pain of that. 

She stopped dead, almost tripping again, when her fingers almost cracked against some type of slanting base. Her hands were what trembled first as she tried to slide them alongand find the end only to realize there wasn’t one.

_Please no_

She wasn’t sure if it was worse or better that soon the pricking of tiny needles seemed to be all that she could feel while the feeling of concrete and wood faded away.

It was so dark.

Realization came in a terrifying thought where the nausea bubbling in her stomach became an outright boil when Wanda realized that she was touching some type of pillar. Whatever it was bracing herself on this was the sole thing that kept her from getting crushed.

Crushed

Wanda felt like she couldn’t breathe.

No.

No, she was sure she couldn’t actually breathe.

Oh God.

Oh God _no._

_No no no no no no no no no no no_

Her fingers gripped around her again, her hands and fingers moving with quicker panic around her. She couldn’t actually feel anything. Her fingers tingled, as though her nerves were electrified and hands trembling but it was so intrusive that she couldn’t actually feel anything but that aching tingle. All she knew was that the walls were not giving way. Nails scratched at the hard concrete and wooden frames that had once held the building up, clawing at the world around her as she quickly moved around the space she was in. Glass shards that stuck to the wood caught at her fingers and between that and how hard her fingers and hands clawed up the walls were a way to cut her right back.

Realizing that everywhere she went led her back to crusted and sharp, yet still solid edgers, Wanda’s whimper grew into a slight shriek that strangled to get past her tightening throat, fingers feeling and scratching harder at each surface before she felt her fists pounding at it. 

_No_

_Nothiscantbehappening_

She screamed again against the bleak darkness, pounding a fist against the wall again before she almost tripped backwards as she pulled back, now needing to be as far away from it as possible.

Her mouth was caught open like caught on a hook as her lungs begged for air. Wanda felt like her lungs were collapsing into themselves in her chest. She tried to swallow again, hoping it would open up her airway but she could only taste the dust that was floating in the air. She almost gagged of it. She tried to breathe again like how Steve had taught her. That was easier said than done. Every single breath she took felt like she was breathing in another grain of dust, letting it drop into her lungs bit by bit on top of each other until she was in a hole she’d never get out of.

Her ears felt like they were pounding, a static echoing in her brain amongst her beating heart bashing against her brain.

Wanda didn’t realize that she was rocking against the balls of her feet, eyes now shut tight as her hands moved across her body as though they had a mind of their own.

She needed to get out she needed to get out she needed to get out she needed

“Alright…dead…everyone sound off”

What was that?

She took in another gasp, almost regretting it as she choked slightly. The light coughing broke apart something in her surroundings. It was words in her head, voices not her own. Her eyes opened to search the darkness again but she quickly shut them when she saw the blanket of darkness.

“Anyone…eyes…Wanda?”

The words were talking about her.

She knew that voice. Didn’t she? Something was trying to register and make it past the static echoing in her mind. A brief flash of a male’s face came to her mind, but she caught it. Something caught in her body. She knew that face, knew the person it belonged to. Safe, thinking of it made her feel safe. 

She tried to bring it back in her mind, rubbing her shaking hands against her eyes in attempt to focus on it. Instead she had an even bigger feeling of nausea bubbling up from her stomach and almost clogging around her lungs. Her mouth opened again and the shaking hands went down to her neck, trying to let in any breath that she could as she tried to focus on the face. The more she focused, the clearer the voices were sounding in her ear. 

“Wanda?!” 

“Wanda, kid, where are you?!”

“Can you track her, Tony?”

The brunette in question kept panting out her breaths, nails now scratching slightly at her throat. She couldn’t feel anything in her hands past the trembling static nerves she had in them that almost made her not feel them at all, but somehow she felt the nails that were connected to them on her neck. Her body still wracked with every breath she tried to take. She heard the voices and her eyes shot around the small area, looking around as her feet moved her in a circle once again. Where were they? She could hear them. She could hear them so where were they? All she saw was darkness. It was just the darkness and her. She started to breathe a little heavier again.

“Her tracker is down, but it can give us her last known location though.”

Her chest shuddered with every breath it tried to take. So many voices, yet she knew them. She was sure of it. Colours of blue filled her mind, the smell of iron and oil, and then an image of vibrant red hair. 

She focused on those images, trying to breathe as deeply as she could. It was as though there was a ball of tissue blocking air from entering her lungs. She focused on the colour blue, blonde hair, and her chest didn’t feel so tight. As another voice came through the line, she focused on the voice rather than the words. 

Metallic red, it shone bright against the sun. 

Then black wings, one of the most friendly smiles she had ever seen.

She didn’t know whether it was a good or bad thing to begin to feel the warbling stinging in her fingertips, like holding a metal bat after you just hit it with a ball and the vibrations echoed along your fingertips and arms. Her breathing was almost in hiccups now, feeling that at least something seemed to be getting into her.

“This is her tracker’s last known location!”

Red iron…

“Can you at least scan to see how far down she might be?” 

Blue.

“Wanda, if you’re awake we need you to answer us _now_.” 

Red hair.

Taking in a shuddering breath that took over her entire body, Wanda moved her hand back up to her head. Her hands still hurt, felt like they were vibrating themselves. Towards the voices, towards the voices, she tried to make her mind repeat. Her fingers fumbled along her gritted and knotted hair. She could barely feel anything against the palms of her fingertips. She feels knots, tangles, it hurts her head as she tries to move her hands free of them until she hits something she swears is solid. She lets out a breath, fingers fumbling around it as she desperately tried to remember how to use it.

She breathes hard. 

“Red, can you hear us?!” Black wings. 

Sam.

“Tony, Rhodey, can you scan for body heat, anything to get a pinpoint?!” Red…Nat.

Her fingers fumble again as she opens her mouth. She immediately gasps for air, feeling the suffocating air fumble down her throat like she was trying to swallow a baseball. Slamming it shut, Wanda lets out another moan. She wanted it to stop _she wanted it to stop_.

“I’m not getting anything,Tones. I thought this went down quite a few feet,” black metal, Rhodey.

“I’m not getting anything either. The debris is too dense when piled.” Yellow, Viz.

Breathing through her nose, she feels something press down on the thing at her ear and she lets out an unsteady breath. She forces herself to open her mouth, fighting back against the panic rushing down her throat again. 

“We’re going to have to dig until we can locate something,” Red Iron, Tony.

“Spread out.” Nat. 

She tries to speak out but the only thing that comes out is a small squawk. She lets out another helpless shuttering breath. No, _no,_ please let them hear her.

“Did you hear something?!” Sam.

“Wanda?!” Blue, Steve. 

The brunette in question let out another shuttering breath as she opened her mouth again. She felt a bubble in her throat and forced it to come out.

“I’m here,” her voice managed to squawk out, high pitched and almost in pain. 

There was a jumble of voices suddenly in her ear and Wanda cringed, rocking slightly as she tried to steady her breathing.

There was a sudden ‘shhh’ over the coms before Natasha’s voice came out clearer.

“Wanda are you alright?” She asked concisely.

Wanda let out another breath before she shook her head, not exactly sure what to say.

“Wanda?” Natasha asked with urgency.

Letting in another shuttering breath she was finally able to come out, “I’m underground.”

“We know you’re under the building,” Natasha reassured her calmly. “We’re already searching for you.”

“It’s really dark,” Wanda blurted out before she even realized she had said it.

“I know,” Natasha’s voice was still calm despite above the redhead was realizing just how panicked Wanda’s PTSD was being driven. “We’re already working on getting you out.”

“Nat, I can’t stay down here,” Wanda’s breath was starting to pick up again. She stared around at the darkness, begging to see something more than just blackness.

“You won’t be, all of us are looking for you, we’ll find you and get you out,” Natasha was barely able to get her words out before Wanda was responding.

“It’s really dark and I can’t get out,” Wanda’s voice was in gasping panic. The air felt so heavy and dirty around her, something wet sticking all along her skin.

“Wanda—,” Natasha tried, her own heart starting to beat faster as she heard Wanda’s shaking breaths, but was cut off almost immediately. 

“I can’t stay down here, Nat. I can’t,” Wanda’s voice hitched a few times through her heavy breaths. Her eyes stared wildly around again and her breath hitched again. 

Oh God was the space getting smaller?

“Wanda, we’re all working through the rubble, okay,” Natasha replies, her voice still steady despite the sound in her ears of her ever quickening heart as she was sure Wanda’s increasingly terrified tone struck to everyone else’s hearts. “We’re going to find you, and we’re going to get you out.”

Wanda shook her head, her eyes still knifing their gaze as she looking around in the scarlet glow, pupils dilating. 

“I’m sorry for everything I did! I’m sorry I did that to you! I’ll be better at making it up to you I promise! And I’ll make sure to practice my powers! I’ll make sure to always be early when I practice and spar with the group! I’ll go to the press conferences, and say what I need to, I’ll do anything,” Wanda’s words rush out, and after she’s taking deep breaths again. 

“Wanda, we are going to—” Natasha started.

The shapes of the cement and wood of the walls and floor seemed to move, misshapen through a haze as though they were floating on waves, getting seemingly both larger and smaller all at the same time. Wanda’s eyes clamped shut tightly, her hands trembling as she tried to breathe. Her bottom lip and chin quivered and she felt what was left of her broken and cut nails pinching and breaking to the skin of her palm as her hand clenched tight.

“Please don’t leave me down here,” Wanda whimpered quietly, feeling the wetness behind her lids as she curled in closer to herself. 

Above her, Natasha froze at Wanda’s tone except to gulp and feel her stomach completely drop and twist. Everyone else listening almost froze, feeling their chest tighten as they heard the desperate whimpering in Wanda’s voice and how it broke with almost every word, a voice that sounded rather like a child rather than a teenager. 

Tony imagined child Wanda, tiny Wanda with still puffed out baby cheeks stuck under her house after one of his own bombs made it topple down on her and he felt like he was going to throw up as he furiously began working through his placement of the rubble faster.

After a few seconds, Natasha closed her eyes for a moment before she opened them again and looked up at the clearing sky.

Wanda’s voice gave them extra adrenaline, a sharper drive to move as fast as they could as they began to dig their way down from the top of the rubble. Steve looked up at her one last time and as the two made eye contact, Natasha nodded and Steve gave her a quick nod back before kneeling down an immediately and begin moving through the rubble.

“Wanda, I need you to listen to me,” Natasha kept her voice gentle, but still steady and in a tone of a slight command to not waver the listener. Her eyes glance around to the others, who were already working furiously through the rubble again. 

Under them, Wanda was biting her lip to hold back a moan, shaking slightly in her balled form as she listened to Natasha’s voice. She tried to let it calm her, let it enter and steady her entire body. She kept her one hand still cupped at her ear, unsure if she could bring it down as her muscles tightened and locked, eyes closed as she listened to the voice over the slightly static communication piece. 

“We’re all here picking up every rock and furniture piece until we get to you. We’re going to find you, Wanda. I promise you, we’re going to find you and we’re going to get you out of there. I just need you to hang in there a little longer, but we are going to find you. I _promise_ , Wanda.”

Wanda’s entire body was still shaking. Her breath hitched again in the slightest sobs that slowly threatened at her chest She tightened her closed eyes for a few seconds before she nodded, much more rapidly than she normally did. Gulping, she tried to open her mouth, shuddering for a moment in fear that she would throw up, but when her mouth finally obeyed her and opened, she found that nothing was coming out.

“Okay,” Wanda’s voice was soft and it shook and did _not_ sound like her own.

“I’ll stay on the line with you the entire time. We all are here listening,” she heard Natasha’s steady voice and knew in her tone that it was a promise.

“Okay,” was still all that Wanda could manage.

Natasha began to walk along the top of the rubble, moving between and past all of the others who had begun their digging again. She hated the idea that she could be walking over Wanda, that any of them were. And as she kneeled down in a spot at a distance to all the others, she hated how even if they were spread out that it still wasn’t enough man power to cover every inch. 

The others listened from the piece in their ears, but all of them were moving rapidly. While Steve relied mostly on his strength to break away the heaviest and largest things first, Sam doing the same as much as he could in comparison, while Rhodey, Vision, and Tony switched between using their strength and blasting away rubble. 

“Rhodey, can you make out any heat signatures yet?” Tony called to him, making sure to not speak into the shared communications system.

“Not yet,” he called back.

Natasha felt her gut clench and she tried to occupy her own mind.

“Talk with me, it’ll help pass the time,” Natasha told Wanda, hands already gripping a heavy, gadded piece of cement before picking it up just enough for her to push it away to begin her search. Even though her arms and hands were moving rapidly, she kept her voice even and steady. “Your catching up on Brooklyn 99 right? With Steve and Sam?”

Wanda nods rapidly again, beginning to rock slightly. It was one of the latest American shows that she decided to watch, to try and learn more about American culture and tone down on her accent, and to know what everyone was talking about when certain jokes or references were made — not that she told the others. 

“Yeah,” Wanda replies softly, taking in another shaking breath.

“I love that show. Can’t wait for the next season. We all usually watch the new episodes together,” Natasha comments, still keeping her even voice as she hastily moved the rubble around her, creating a large circle perimeter of where she would go deeper. “Who is your favourite character?”

Wanda let out another shaking breath, her lungs only taking in the air and expelling it when she felt so lightheaded and her chest so tight that she needed it. She replies, her voice still soft.

“Jake.” 

He reminded her of Pietro. 

“Good choice,” Natasha answered, “he reminds me Clint, especially back when we worked with SHIELD together. Dumb jokes yet somehow has his shit together, that’s all Clint.” 

Wanda almost let out a shuddering breath of amusement. It was incredibly hollow, and it almost didn’t feel real, but she felt that out with her breath came some of the dust that felt stuffed into her chest. 

Natasha wasn’t expecting Wanda to laugh, but she felt her heart flutter ever so slightly as Wanda’s shaking breath came out in the slightest hint of a happier emotion.

“Mine’s Rosa,” the redhead continues, using more of her upper body to push over a large beam that allowed smaller concrete pieces to break away down the other side of her dig.

Wanda let out another shaky, hallow breath. Her eyes squeezed a little tighter and she gulped, feeling sick as she forced herself to continue talking with Natasha, needing to hear her voice.

“I like her too,” Wanda managed to squeak out, taking another large breath after as though the words expelled all of her lung capacity. She didn’t want to think about if they actually did.

“She’s badass isn’t she?” Natasha continued, “although I do have a small soft spot for Gina. It’s too bad she left the show, she was the unsung hero of the precinct.” 

Wanda let out another shaky breath, but nodded, not as rapidly this time however her fist was still clenched and her other hand was still cupping hard against the communications device in her ear.

“What else have you been watching?” Natasha asked. “You watched a lot of sitcoms for a long time didn’t you?” 

Wanda nodded a few times again, still taking shuddering breaths, but they didn’t seem to wrack her entire chest anymore. It was weird how her hands both shook but were also seemingly clamped into place. 

It was true. She still wasn’t sure how many different streaming services there were online, but she was sure that the Avengers Compound subscribed to every one of them. While the group or a few members got together often watched things together in the afternoons before bed or after training, their current watch being Stranger Things, she did watch a few American shows on her own. They were usually quick episodes and after everything that happened she was looking for something more lighthearted. When Sam and Clint explained the different types of shows there were, she thought something with humour would be nice. In reality, there was only a few things she actually stuck with, Brooklyn 99 was one of the few. She remembered that she started watching quite a few things, Friends, Modern Family, Community, this one about a girl that moved into an apartment with all guys, was the Office the other thing she got into? She couldn’t be sure anymore there had been so many. She would get a season or so in and just let her interest die out. A lot of those shows were annoying, or boring. It was the same with movies, she couldn’t remember the last time she actually finished one. 

American tv, or maybe it was just Americans, were weird.

She let her mind wander about the weird and awful shows that she sometimes forced herself to watch to try and learn more about the country she had suddenly become a part of. She thought about the few things she did actually stick with.

“The Br-Brady Bunch….and M-Married with-with Children,” she replies, taking a deep breath afterward again. 

“I haven’t watched that last one, but that has Katey Sagal in it right? She plays Gemma in Sons of Anarchy. I love that show. I’m not sure if you’d be interested in it, pretty violent, but it’s good if you ever want something on your radar,” Natasha replied past Sam calling to her.

“Red?! Wanda can you hear me?!” 

How deep was she buried down there?

“Into the older stuff then?” Natasha continued, needing to get herself out of her own mind too. 

Wanda made the stiffest, slightest shrug she’s sure she’s ever made.

“Kind of,” she answered. “I-I like family ones.” She took in another breath, not realizing her hand was starting to slack slightly. 

“What else is on that list then?” Natasha asked. “I’m more of a high stakes drama person myself so I haven’t seen a lot of things in that area.”

“Umm, Sabrina the Teen-Teenage Witch,” Wanda remembered. She actually rewatched that several times. There was quite a bit of comfort she got from watching that show. The idea immediately interested her and she had ‘binged’ (that was what Clit called it, right?) the series in a matter of weeks. 

Natasha almost smiled as she continued to move debris.

“I can see why you’d take an interest in that, can’t say I’ve seen much of it myself though. What else? Maybe we have other things we’ve seen in common,” Natasha told her.  
“Uh, ” Wanda said, needing another breath before she answered, “One Day at a Time, F-Fresh off the Boat.”

“Wanda?!” Rhodey called down to her through his own suit as he pushed through another large piece of what was once a wall.

“For One Day at a Time, is it the old one or the new one?” Natasha asked. Just keep talking with me Wanda, you can’t be too far down. 

Natasha felt another knife to the gut. God how much air did she have left?

“New one,” Wanda answered shakily. She liked the grandmother.

Natasha was about to answer her when Tony froze for a moment before he called through one the coms, “FRIDAY is sensing a heat signature and is trying to pin-point it. We’re almost there to you kid.”

Wanda took in another shaky breath, but this time of relief.

“Okay,” she answered.

“Until then, stay with me, Wanda,” Natasha continued to hold her thoughts again so they didn’t wander. FRIDAY could sense things way more than just a few feet down. She still didn’t want Wanda in her own headspace.

“So, sitcoms your thing then?” Natasha asked.

“And-and cartoons,” the witch admitted.

“Oh yeah?” Natasha asked, eyes flickering slightly as she saw Tony blast away another heap of debris to get deeper before she went down to her own pathway. She wasn’t surprised, or didn’t understand the inner justification of it. After Clint helped her escape her own nightmares, she had secretly watched and enjoyed a few movies or shows where she was much older then the general target audience. “Please tell me that Kim Possible is on that list of yours.”

Wanda let out the slightest huffed breath, the closest thing she could get to what was almost a snort and what felt almost like a pleasant warmth hovering over her skin. Not quite touching it, but a cloud close it could almost tickle.

“Yeah,” she answered. She let her mind imagine the illustrations of the cartoon characters, tried to let her mind land on a memory of a particular scene or episode that made her smile. Anything but this.

“What else?” Natasha encouraged, wincing slightly as a jagged piece of glass hit the top of her wrist and left a long but shallow cut through the skin just above where her suit came down to her wrists. She didn’t let it slow her, couldn’t; not when so much was on the line.

“Wanda?!” Steve called down where he was digging, taking a large huff when he heard nothing before going back to his actions.

Wanda only needed a moment to think, her mind somehow both rapid in haste yet slugging through her own thoughts as she tried to change the image of Kim Possible to merge to something else. Seeing the new face begin to form, the name instantly came to the tip of her mind.

“Avatar the-the Last Airbend-der,” Wanda replied. After seeing a quick trailer of it on Netflix she had more than being intrigued, and by the first episode she found comfort and warmth in it as much as enjoyment. She let her mind melt into those memories at least as much as they could. 

That first night she kept watching until she fell asleep, only to wake up a few hours later to Sam banging on her door telling her breakfast was almost over before training. And when all of her training and school time was done, she had barely stayed for supper with the group before she hid back up to her room, deciding not to watch or socialize with the others. Instead, she spent her entire night going through each episode, and each night after that until she had gone through every last one.

“I had no idea you were watching that! Have you watched Korra yet? Lila loves that show. Even Clint has a few strong opinions on it,” Natasha comments to her, grunting slightly as she picked up another large piece of concrete to throw out of her hole. 

“I’m in-in the second sea-season,” Wanda answers her. Korra. Asumi. She could focus on that. The images were already swirling in her head. Just don’t open your eyes. Just don’t open your eyes.

The thought that she had been pressing into the corner of her mind, slowly spread out it’s vines as she thought of it, even in the knowledge of knowing that she was trying _not_ to. She felt the taste of dirt on her tongue again and she let out a strangled whimper as her eyes clenched a bit more, her hands clenching again so hard she felt the strain in the bones of her fingers. She felt her heartbeat coming back to her ears and she realized quickly that the faster each new beat came the louder it started to drum in her ears. 

“Wanda?!” Natasha asked, keeping her voice still collected and in a dominated controlling manner to the other’s ear. What had she said? What had gone wrong? “Breathe, Wanda. I’ll count for you again if I need to.”

Wanda took in another sharp breath at Natasha’s voice. It seemed so loud now, fighting for the dominance of her hearing with the drumming of her heart. There was shuffling underneath her and she felt another pang of fear jolt through, letting the fear liquify and turn to stone in her stomach again even after she knew it was just herself making the noise as her body shook and rocked itself.

What if they couldn’t find her? What if they left her? 

She deserved it, didn’t she? The monster she was. The terrible person she was. She fought with them. She created their worst nightmares to bloom in their minds. She helped Ultron. What if they left her down here, to live in her own mind and hell. What if she died under here? What if she never saw the sun again? What if she died under a collapsed building, nothing around her but decrepit ruminants of what was, seeing nothing but absolute darkness and shadows and bare outlines of what was around her, with the taste of dirt and dust on her mouth or in her nose or stuffed down her lungs?

She leaned her head and shoulders down until she was curled against her knees, feeling smaller than she ever had since the night Pietro died, since they had been stuck in the shambles of their house. She wish Pietro was here. Pietro would talk to her. Pietro would keep her calm. Pietro always made her feel safe. 

The bomb came down and their mother was dead and everything else in the world had gone wrong, but Pietro had been there. 

They had lived on the streets, some nights so cold that she didn’t know if they would wake up the next morning; or they hadn’t ate in four days and were barely able to run from people who were hunting for lost souls like them, but Pietro was there. 

When they were in the facility and could barely open her eyes after the experiments she knew Pietro was by her bedside. 

Pietro was there to remind her that the sun was still in the sky and the stars still danced with the moon. Pietro was there to hold her in his arms whenever she was scared of what the night would bring and who could capture them. Pietro was by her side at every protest. Pietro had always been there. 

But he wasn’t here now. And she was alone in the darkness.

“Pietro.”

For a moment, everyone else wasn’t sure if that was actually Wanda. The voice sounded too small and pained, like the tiny broken whimper of a child. 

Natasha saw a few of the others look up at her, the same thing clenching within her chest had made it through all of theirs as well. She eyes Sam not too far away in the corner of her eye before she moves back to work.

“Wanda, I need you to breathe. Breathe in while I count to ten: one, two, three, four, five, six,” there was no change of response of the other end and Natasha almost gritted her teeth. What had she said to trigger this? Please come back out of it Wanda. Don’t retreat back into your mind or we may never get you back out of it in time. “seven, eight, nine, ten…Wanda are you still with us?”

Below them Wanda had tried to breathe. She tried to follow Natasha’s instructions but she was too scared to open her mouth yet that she would scream and if she breathed through her nose that the dust would make it down her throat and suffocate her before she could ever remember what light was.

Her other fisted hand shook as it slowly came up her chest. She forced her mind to pry the trembling fingers open just enough to grasp the thin gold pendant of her necklace before she grasped it tightly, hand shaking but being careful not to pull on the chain. 

She focus on the chain, the feeling in her fingers. She could barely feel it past the prickling sensations, but she still holds onto that feeling now. The chain and the heart pendant was solid in her grasp, something tangible she could actually anchor herself on.

Natasha’s voice faded as her mind became filled with her memories of Sokovia. Of the one year for Hannukah her brother found the necklace on the street and gave it her on the last night. She wore it every day for years. It was one of the only things she could own while they were homeless. Before the creation of Ultron, Pietro took it back and said that he was going to have it refurbished from some the money that Hydra had given them from the experiments and for their loyalty. Looking back it hadn’t been a lot that they were offered, but after so many cold years resting in alleyways they had blindly taken anything that gave them a step up.

After the fall of Sokovia she thought she lost it forever, that the jewelry store he must’ve taken it to destroyed.

But she remembered the day very clearly when Nick Fury contacted her about their possessions they found when they finished raiding and investigated everything in what was left of the Hydra facility months later after joining the Avengers. It was particularly rainy, and when it wasn’t raining it was dreary and grey. It was getting closer to fall and the temperature was dropping. Nick Fury and Maria Hill came to the Avengers compound with a box labelled ‘Classified - Maximoffs’. They said these were the items that Hydra labelled as theirs or they found in their rooms at the facility when they stayed there and were deemed safe to return.

It was mostly clothing that she didn’t want, nothing to remind her of the life she had there. Hydra even kept the clothing they had worn before their first tests. There were her brothers books, ones that were sometimes too hard for him to read due to their lack of education and reading comprehension skills, but that she kept all the same and treasured because they were his favourite stories. She threw out the old make-up that she once treasured while there, never having money to buy it before and being excited to do so for the first time.

But then she saw the necklace, shiny and gold with its green and rust now gone. She had cried and hid in her room for the rest of the day as a train of emotions hit her so hard she felt like she couldn’t breathe. The relief to have it back had soon followed up that he had done as he promised and it had been at the facility before Ultron’s existence.

It hit her like a knife to the heart: he must’ve been saving it for their birthday. 

She spent the day in her room, wearing one of Pietro’s sweaters that Fury brought back and clutched the necklace just as she was now.

She held on to the memory, the image of Pietro’s younger face, a face shadowed by overgrown and greasy hair with dirt on his clothing and cheeks but still giving her the widest smile when he gave it to her all those years ago, wanting it to swallow her whole.

_“WANDA!”_

Letting out a gasp, Wanda shook as Natasha’s voice came back just as loud in her ears, completely devoid of the cloud she had been in before. She opened her mouth and upon tasting the dust and metal of the air she coughed and whimpered before closing it again. She let out a shuddering breath before trying again, her hand still gripping at the necklace.

“I’m here,” her voice managed to squeak out. 

Natasha let out a breath of relief along with the other Avengers as they continued their work.

“Thought we lost you for a few minutes,” Natasha admitted, grunting as she lifted a heavy piece of concrete out of her way.

“I’m here,” was all Wanda could respond. Focus on the necklace. Focus on Pietro. 

Above them, Rhodey did another scan of the rubble and gritted his teeth.

“I’m getting closer to a heat signature trace but I still can’t get a concrete location,” he reported.

“Neither can I,” Vision agreed sadly, moving a large piece of wall out of the way only to hit a wall of concrete below it.

Tony gritted his teeth. They wouldn’t stop until Wanda was out of there. _He_ wouldn’t stop until Wanda was out. Last time Wanda was stuck under a building it took her two days to reach her freedom again. He was not going to let that happen again.

“Red!” Sam called down close to the hole of rubble he was digging in.

“Wanda!” Steve called at the same time as Tony.

“Kid?!” 

The fresh voice sent a chill like electricity up Wanda’s spine and a gasp escaped her lips. Her shoulders shook ever so slightly.

Immediately perking up, Natasha looked at everyone.

“Wanda, who did you hear?” Natasha asked, eyes quickly looking to the others. Just as suddenly, everyone froze.

Wanda let out a shaky breath. They were close _they were close_.

“Wanda, listen for it again,” Natasha instructed hurriedly before pointing to each Avenger when it was their turn, making sure her own com was off so Wanda wouldn’t mistaken.

“Wanda!”

“Wanda!”

“Red!”

“Wanda!”

The brunette let out another shuddering gasp as she gripped her necklace tighter but Natasha heard it loud and clear.

“Tony, she’s near you!” Natasha was already almost tripping as she hurried towards him.

Others fell into suit the second after, all of them immediately beginning to surround the large hole Tony had started. Sam landed right beside her as he helped her move a large piece of flooring as the group worked on making the hole larger and deeper.

“Wanda, can you hear us?!” Steve called down to her.

“Wanda, we have located where you are! We will uncover you soon!” Vision called down to her.

Steve quickly threw a large piece of the flooring away, almost arms deep as he kept moving debris. 

“I’m starting to get an outline on her heat signature,” Rhodey reported almost excitedly and Tony’s heart leap with relief when he began to see the same until he realized the shape of Wanda huddled in on herself.

“Hang in there, kid,” Sam speaks into his com to her.

Below them, Wanda’s hand gripped tightly at her necklace as she hung on every word. She needed to believe in it, needed to believe that the muffled words above her were real. Her eyes clenched tightly as she rocked. 

“Pietro,” she whispered again with need. They were going to find her. They were going to find her. She needed to believe in that.

To everyone, the next few minutes felt like another form of eternity. Wanda rocked, clutching at her necklace and repeating her mantra over and over in her head. They would find her. They would find her. And to everyone else above the more they moved rubble away the more it felt like they were farther she seemed to sink down away from them. Now that they knew where she was, everyone was impatient with the process. 

The muffled sounds of rock and things moving above her was slowly getting louder and louder, but the edge of the movements were still there. The sound of concrete, wood, and glass sliding against each other still ripped through her heart as though it was happening right beside her ears. The horrible trickery that she knew well from her own experiences was that the sounds of a slow further collapse were just the same as the movement of freedom. And that one mistake could keep her suck or make the situation worse if they took a supporting part of her shelter by accident. 

Their muffled voices broke through louder and clearer and she tried to focus on them. On Vision’s calculatingly calm tone, on Natasha’s promise that they were getting closer.

It wasn’t until dust seemed to pour along her shoulders that Wanda clenched up again, a strangled whimper barely making it past her lips as she felt her blood turn to ice in her veins. She would’ve screamed if her terror didn’t make her clench her teeth together. 

“Wanda?!” 

Natasha’s voice was clearer than if she had been in the hallway asking for permission to enter her room at the Compound.

In the flash of her senses latching onto Natasha’s voice, it was then only a few seconds later that she realized that even if her eyes were clenched shut, there was a faint of grey. After a sharp intake, her body shaking slightly, she tried to relax her body. She felt her tight shoulders fall ever so slightly and her eyes relaxed slightly and the dark grey was slowly turning to a lighter colour.

“Move that piece over,” Sam instructed and she heard more scraping before the grey behind her eyes turned to an off-orange. 

“I think I can see her,” Rhodey reported, “the hole is still blocked.”

“We’re right above you, Wanda,” she hears Vision, very clearly this time. “Are you alright? Can you answer us?”

Wanda took in another breath, her mouth shaking as she opened it. The taste of dust on her tongue made her want to throw-up but she forced herself to push past it.

“Yes,” her voice shook and it was small and she could only hope that they were able to hear it.

“Can you see the end of this ceiling piece?” Steve asked and she heard more shuffling above her.

“I can find the end on this side,” Tony replied, more shuffling and she shivered as she felt more dust fly around her head and shoulders, the sound of scraping clawing at her eardrums.

“This one’s too far back,” Natasha reported back. 

Wanda’s body almost seized again at the implication. There was too much above the other end of it. Maybe it was what was holding everything up so she had this little space. How ironic that what had likely stopped her from getting crushed was also what was trapping her.

“Can you unbury it?” 

“It could take a while. I don’t know how long and deep into the debris it is.”

_Please don’t leave me down here please don’t leave me down here_

“Can you cut through it?”

“I don’t want to risk cutting something else or going too deep.”

“Hold on, Wanda, we’ll get you out.”

_Please don’t leave me down here_

“Rogers, Vision, see if you can pull it up, but slowly.”

There was more scuffling around, though the footsteps were leading a bit more away from her. 

“One, two…three.”

The sound that came shortly afterwards wasn’t quite a screech, but it was like almost a wrenching sound. Multiple loud shuffles around came after closer to her other side above her and Wanda froze again, listening intently for whatever the ceiling and wall was holding up to completely fall on her again. 

“Easy, not too fast. Just enough that I can reach through.” Tony told them. “FRIDAY, what’s the structure’s integrity?”

She wasn’t sure whether she was glad or hated that she couldn’t hear the AI’s response.

“Rhodey, get closer to my side,” Tony instructed and there is more shuffling and stomping close to her.

“Let me do it, Tony. I’m smaller,” Natasha suggested.

“No, I’m doing it in case…in case I need to jump down in with her. Speaking of which, Rhodey I need you to help them hold it up but if you hear something I need you to push me down in,” Tony told him. “All three of you, keep lifting.” 

Instead of a verbal response, she hears more sounds of shuffling and scraping from the debris moving. The light behind her eyes slowly transforms from an orange to a soft yellow. She hears slight grunting and more shuffling.

“Wanda?”

Tony’s voice so loud and close makes her jump and she trembles again. It was so close, so close it echoed in the imprisoning walls.

_Please let this be real please let this be real please_

There was a quick slide of metal, almost like an elevator door opening incredibly fast before she heard his voice again.

“Wanda, I need you to come towards me, okay? So I can lift you out.” Tony’s voice was softer and no longer muffled. He must’ve taken off the helmet.

Wanda trembled slightly. She nods fast almost in determination but her movement still has some jarring twitchiness to them. Her hand shakes slightly as she forces herself to let go of the necklace. Taking in a slight breath, her legs shake slightly from how tight in tension and stress they were, but she carefully tries to get to her feet. She carefully takes a step forward, cringing slightly as she’s forced to touch the debris walls to balance herself. 

She takes a step, stumbling and almost tripping as the makeshift floor becomes uneven.

“You’re almost to me, Wanda, two more steps,” Tony’s words of encouragement somehow sounded with both soft encouragement and slight tension. 

She takes another step, careful to keep her balance as she almost stumbles again.

“One more step. You’re going to feel my arms towards you, okay?” Tony tells her, keeping up the encouragement as much as he can.

Even though Tony warned her, Wanda jumps again as she takes a stumbling step forward and feels the cold metal touch her skin. A second later though, she steps more into it while feeling the metal wrap around her.

“That’s it,” Tony tells her encouragingly and he hopes that as she wraps her arms around his neck she can’t feel how fast his heart is beating. “I’m going to lift you up.”

With one arm securely wrapped around her upper back, the other holds at the edge he is laying against and he carefully begins to push himself up.Wanda holds tightly, still hiding her face against him as Tony slowly but surely lifts them out.

“Watch your head,” Tony advises as he guides them past the debris Steve and Vision were still faithfully holding up. Each inch that he brings her out with him the light behind her eyes gets brighter and brighter and Wanda has to shut her eyes shut even tighter to avoid the irritation the light brings to her retinas that had gotten so used to the doom of the darkness below. 

The next thing she notices is that even though her mouth is clenched shut, she can almost taste the fresh air. She can actually feel the sun’s ray’s on her, instantly feeling the warmth they bring.

_Please don’t let this be a dream_

“She’s out, lift it back down!” Rhodey’s voice was so clear even through the helmet. 

Wanda hears the screech and rustlings again before feeling another metal hand at her back as Tony carefully got to his knees then to his feet. It makes her jump slightly before settling back down again.

“I’ve got you,” Tony promises, still holding her as he had before. 

“Wanda?!” Sam’s voice asks and she hears rustling of footsteps coming closer over the sound of her heartbeat still weak in her ears. Someone either almost tripped or slid down a block of debris. A shadow comes across her face and she recognizes Steve’s touch as he moves to try and pull back some of her hair. 

“Wanda, are you hurt?” He asks. She can almost feel his face close to her’s. She tries to answer him but her throat still feels like there is a ball in it, and her fingers and arms are still tingling.

“She might still be in shock,” Sam’s voice explains. She can feel them start to crowd around her.

“I’ll take her to the nearest medical team,” Tony tells them. “You stay here and make sure no one else was in the building. I’ll give you a location once I get there.”

Wanda didn’t know whether they nodded or if Tony had already made his decision before they could reply. Almost immediately she feels a sharp rumble and torch sound and knew his blasters had ignited. She feels his arms tighten around her before feeling the air rush past her clothes and skin. Wanda gasps and feels herbed almost laying but still in a sensation of being upside-down. Sensing the indication, she feels Tony turn so that they are both on their sides, her hair flapping in the wind as she felt Tony wave them around in the air.

“I won’t let go,” Tony promises to her. His helmet was still off, they weren’t flying too high then but she didn’t want torso opening her eyes or moving her head to find out. 

She doesn’t know how long they were flying but knows it couldn’t have been too long before she feels the air rushing through her hair and past her starting to lesson in its force. Soon Tony’s engine or…whatever it was in his boots. Her mind couldn’t remember what they were called, began to quiet as well before Tony slowly moved them into an upright position. 

Eventually she felt herself being lowered until there was a soft jolt as Tony’s feet settled on the ground but before she could get used to gravity again he was already moving.

“I need a doctor!” Tony was calling out to someone and suddenly a shadow was cast over them and she couldn’t completely feel the sun’s heat against her. “I think she’s gone into shock.”

Wanda’s arms didn’t loosen as she heard scurrying around close to her. Multiple shuffles against the ground. Her eyes were still shut tight as she felt Tony sit down. The shuffles were getting closer until she could practically feel the people so close. It was uncomfortable. Having them stay so close but not know who they were was like having skin to skin contact directly rubbing against each other. It made her skin crawl uncomfortably.

She feels something soft and heavy wrap around her shoulders as Tony talks who must apparently be nurses. Yes this is her. No I can’t get her to move but I think she’s comfortable here. She was under some rubble for quite a bit of time. No she hasn’t been coughing but her heart rate is still elevated. I’m not sure if she will wear one. 

“Wanda, can you at least try to take deep breaths?” Tony asks, his voice still showing the slightest tension but he was trying to make it soft. “You’re breathing is really fast,” he explains.

Was it?

It was hard to tell but she should’ve figured it out when she could practically feel her heart thudding so hard it seemed to echo against Tony’s suit. She tries to let her mind wander to her lungs and she does become aware that through the beating of her heart that her chest is rising and falling almost as rapidly. She tries to take a deeper breath, almost coughing and her body jolts slightly from it before she can regain herself again. 

Breathe…breathe….breathe……

“Great job,” Tony’s voice doesn’t sound as strained. “When you can, Wanda, can you loosen your arms? Only a little, they want to put a mask on you.” 

Wanda tensed slightly at the idea. A mask over her? People and things touching her face. To keep herself calm she kept trying to focus on her breathing just like Tony said. Although the light was still dampened by something, more of a yellow glow began to form behind her closed eyes. She felt an ache in the back of her shoulder that she hadn’t noticed before. And prickling sensations cameo form across her skin and in her fingertips that had been completely numb before.

“You’re doing great, kid,” Tony tells her softly. 

She hears footsteps coming towards her again and Wanda tenses slightly as a woman’s soft voice comes nearer.

“Can she put this on?” 

“Wanda?”

Tony’s voice got her attention again and he shifted slightly, her more relaxed arms allowing him to shift her body slightly back from him. She sensed the other woman very close, but her hair didn’t seem to crawl with that idea anymore.

“Hi, Wanda. My name is Jenna. Can you put on an oxygen mask for me? It’ll help you breathe a little better. You may have breathed in a few things so your lungs may need a bit of extra support.” Her voice was soft but still direct. She reminded her of one of those doctors that would have large frizzy orange curls. 

Wanda slowly nods in response and when Jenna realizes that she’s not going to open her eyes, she helps to carefully guide the mask to her, giving a glance to Tony before looking back to Wanda.

“I almost have it here,” Jenna mumbles, but she didn’t need to. Wanda could sense it coming closer to her too. 

Her shoulders tense up slightly and even though she knew it was coming. She could almost sense the aura of the nurse and her hands. She felt so frazzled she swore her peach fuzz worked like cat whiskers where she felt the sensation of the plastic before actually feeling it against her skin. The mask came over her nose and mouth. She tries to relax. Although the plastic didn’t feel right against her skin, or maybe it was just her skin itself, it wasn’t a danger.

It was only when she felt the nurse, Jenna, begin to wrap a strap around her head that Wanda immediately moved back and twisted her head around in protest.

“Okay, okay,” Jenna understood, her voice still gentle and the brunette feels the strap fall away. “Can you hold it there then?”

Wanda gulps. It takes a second, but she forces her one hand to let go of her other arm on the other side of Tony before it almost slinked off of him. Her hands were still prickling with sensations, crackles along her skin but she manages to get the unsteady hands to hold the mask to her face. 

“That’s it, just hold it there,” Jenna confirms before there is more shuffling. After a few seconds, Wanda suddenly feels a flush of air rush against her lips and nose. She takes it in a large breath, trying to even it out before the mask begins to regulate it better. It didn’t taste like air, though air tasted different everywhere it seems. But it was almost…artificial. Nonetheless, already she could feel the pressure of the air wanting to go to her beginning to loosen her throat and lungs. 

“That should help a bit,” Jenna muses before coming back. “Wanda, is it alright if I check you out? Your fr….team…Mr. Stark says that you were underground. I want to see what injuries you sustained.” 

Wanda only needs to think for a moment before she nodded. This girl sounded nice and whenever she was around Wanda’s alarms of anxiety didn’t make any noise in her head. 

“Can you move back a bit then, Wanda, so she can see you better?” Tony asked.

Wanda paused for a moment again.

“I’ll stay here,” Tony promises.

After another second, Wanda nods and tries to shuffle back a bit on Tony’s lap. Metal hands gently help her as she moves down a bit and turns so that she is sitting with both legs on one side of his.

“That’s good enough,” Jenna promises. “I’m just going to look you over and listen to your heart and lungs.”

Wanda doesn’t nod but her non-reaction is understood by the nurse. There is more footsteps and feels hands at the back of her jacket. 

“I’m just going to lift this and listen,” Jenna explains before Wanda feels a new draft up her back before feeling the jacket itself scrunch up slightly as it began to tighten ever so slightly around her shoulders and the ache in her shoulder stirs slightly again. She soon feels the draft directly against her skin before she felt light pressure, almost dabs of something moving along her back. It had to be the nurse’s hands.

“Oh….” Jenna’s softly shocked voice came from behind her, “Wanda I’m going to have a listen to your heart and lungs, tell me if it hurts.”

Wanda is silent and Jenna takes it as the okay to continue. She feels something smooth and circular against her back. An involuntary twitch leaves her before she settles down again.

“This doesn’t hurt?” 

Wanda shook her head.

“Okay, let me know if it does. Take deep breaths for me,” Jenna instructs. 

Wanda does so, or at least she tries to. She’s not sure if she’s breathing deeper than normal or not. 

She keeps breathing, getting lost in the motion.

Sounds begin to become clearer. Tony’s breathing right beside her, other people moving around close by, their shoes scratching against the ground and voices talking to weaker or more hysterical ones, something flapping in the wind like when she went camping at Clint’s farm, car alarms and sirens in the distance.

The more she began to relax the more she felt the sharp pain in her shoulders, and a slight ache in her right ankle. The metal of Tony’s suit wasn’t exactly warm, but it wasn’t cold like she’d expect either. The metal of the stethoscope was though as much as it was smooth. Warm hands moved it around to different spots on her back. The one side didn’t ache as much when she moved it to the other side of her back. 

The ground was a little dusty for a black road, blurry too. Footsteps walked along it, some hurriedly, some a bit more staggered. Some in what she thought were heels, some in running shoes. Their walking was at the same time sounds of footsteps hit her ears.

When had she opened her eyes?

She slowly lets her gaze rise and takes in multiple men in women in white or light blue scrubs moving under the large medical tent. There were tables set up, some supplies on top and boxes of likely more underneath. The sun was bright on the city. No buildings seemed to be destroyed so the battle must’ve been close by sine they set it up here.

There was a little bit of greenery too, the roads blocked off but she couldn’t see how high they were because of of the tent blocking her view. Police officers were directing people, some walking away with icepacks while others were sitting in a chair close to her. 

Didn’t she know this place?

Was this at one of the entrances to Central Park? 

The smooth pad of the stethoscope leaves her back and she feels warm fingers gently raise the jacket and shirt a little higher for a few seconds before placing them down to normal again.

“Everything okay?” Tony’s voice almost made her jump. It was louder and clearer than before. Did he have his helmet off the entire time since he found her?

There was more shuffles of clothing and footsteps before a mid-height woman came into view. Wanda had to raise her gaze slightly to see her face since she was so close. She was close, the round faced woman with lightly tanned skin had frizzy light brown curls held back in a tight ponytail but Wanda could still make out the details of the roundness of the curl strands.

The instant Jenna saw her gaze, Wanda watched her face light up quite a few measures.

“Hi, Wanda,” Jenna smiles reassuring to her. “I’m glad you’re starting to get a little more comfortable. I could hear your heart rate lowering, that’s a really good sign you’re starting to come down from what happened.”

“So she’s alright?” Tony asked, his voice slightly stressed again.

“It doesn’t sound like her lungs are congested or anything, however it may still be a good idea to get them checked to be safe,” Jenna explains before turning to look back at Wanda. “However I think the more pressing thing is that you have quite the bruise around your shoulder, Wanda. It’s already starting to turn purple and it’s almost all the way down your back. Did something land on it?”

No, Wanda remembered, however she was sure when she was heading to hit the building that she went to it back first. It probably knocked the wind out of her and that’s why she passed out. 

“I don’t think you dislocated your collar bone, but it likely sustained significant damage and I highly suggest you get that looked at quickly,” Jenna explains. “I know an ambulance will be on their way back by now I can make a call in and make sure they are ready for you.”

“That’s fine. We’ll take her to our own medical team,” Tony explains. 

Jenna nods, takes a look back at Wanda and then looks at both of them. “Okay. I’ll grab a water bottle. She can stay here until you leave.”

Tony nods and lets out a small sigh.

“Thank you,” he says. Jenna nods in return before turning to walk towards a far end table. Wanda can faintly see water bottles stacked underneath it.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Wanda?” Tony asked. 

Wanda nodded, her breathing still a little heavy, but even that was starting to subside the more she found she was able to interact with her surroundings again. There was still something numbing inside her. She wasn’t sure if there was a dull throb of it, but something in her felt like it was isolated, like she could feel the shell but not what was underneath. She couldn’t explain that though.

The redhead turns her head to look at him. It was weird to see his face in the suit like this. It almost wasn’t Tony’s face. It looked to white and nervous to be his. His eyes still had a slight wildness to them and there was a cut across his cheek that wasn’t even dry yet. Had he gotten that getting her out?

She gulps at least in motion, there didn’t seem to be anything there.

“Yes,” she tries to force herself to say however it was like something sliced up her throat. Her voice doesn’t really come out as her own. It almost sounded like there was gravel rolling across her tongue. 

He nodded and she could see slight relief rise in his eyes. She keeps holding the mask to her face, the air not so much forcing itself into her lungs anymore but almost like letting her drift on the comfortability to breath again.

Within seconds Jenna is walking back over to them, a bottle of water in hand, and Wanda’s attention turns back to her. The nurse offers Wanda a reassuring smile before stopping in front of her and handing the water bottle to her. 

“If you think your breathing has regulated enough, take some sips. It’ll help,” Jenna tells her.

Wanda nods in response, reaching for the bottle. She was about to give the nurse her thanks when she sees something out of the corner of her eye. The sun glared down against their suits as they said something quick to the police security around the perimeter.

Tony only noticed when they were almost under the tent, his brows furrowing.

“What are you two doing here?” He asked.

“We wanted to check on Wanda,” Sam responded.

“We thought you’d be better out there with them,” Natasha continued.

Tony pursed his lip, looking down at Wanda who was now starting to turn and look back at him. She would be fine, he told himself. She already was looking better, had some colour to her cheek and eyes again and she was actually becoming responsive and back from her petrified terror.

“We won’t be leaving her side either,” Natasha promised.

After a second’s pause, Tony let out a sigh. He could trust Nat’s word.

“Okay,” he finally agreed. He looked back down to Wanda, “okay, kid, do you think you can stand?”

Wanda thought for a moment. Her legs weren’t tingling with needle pricks anymore, she didn’t know when that went away either, but instead now they felt like heavy set stone. But Tony had to be elsewhere.

Her movements are slow, one hand still holding the mask to her face while the other held the water bottle. She tries to let her heavy ankles reach the ground before sliding off Tony and trying to stand up.

It works well until she begins to actually lift herself off of him. Wanda, Sam, and Jenna were standing by holding their breath just as much as Wanda thought that she was. But the slight ache Wanda had felt in her ankle before turned into a full-blown electric shock all up her leg stemming from her ankle the second that she tried to put her weight on it. Wanda immediately faltered and almost fell forward had it not been for Natasha and Sam immediately holding up her arms on either side.

“Which ankle?” Jenna asked, but it was already clear when she looked down and saw Wanda putting almost all her weight on her other foot.

“Hold on,” Tony said, and she heard quick movements behind her before Sam and Natasha were slowly helping to lower Wanda back down onto the chair that Tony had been sitting in with her beforehand. The young girl let out a sigh of relief before trying to relax in the chair.

“What are her other injuries?” Natasha asked, turning to Jenna.

“Her lungs and heart sound fine, but her shoulder looks to be in bad shape. I don’t think she broke her collar bone but it definitely needs to be looked at. And because of what happened she should probably also get a brain scan to be sure there are no injuries,” Jenna reported.

Natasha nodded before turning to Tony.

“I’ve already sent coordinates to Fury. He’s sending someone with the jet. We’ll get her initially looked at and scanned before taking her to the Compound for further treatment,” Natasha told him.

Tony nodded.

“I’ll send Cap and the others as soon as we’re done,” Tony told Wanda. 

She nods again, gulping to try and quell her stinging throat before she tells him in a small voice.

“Thank you.”

Tony lets in another sharp breath before he nods, patting her shoulder perhaps a second too long before he turns, his suit engaging the helmet before he is suddenly in the air flying back obviously in the direction to the fallen building. Wanda shivered at the thought of it before she looked back down at her feet. She could actually see how dusty her boots and calves were. She could only imagine the rest of her image was the exact same.

“We’ll take it from here,” Sam tells Jenna and Natasha gives a nod as well, “thank you.”

Jenna nods, giving a slight smile of comfort, giving one specifically to Wanda, before she turns and goes to someone else who had just walked past the security members to wards the tent. As Wanda’s gaze follows her, she notices a few other nurses and civilians looking at them strangely. It probably wasn’t every day they saw Iron Man come in with another Avenger, followed by Black Widow and the Falcon still in their battle attire. 

Now that they were alone, Natasha nodded to the water bottle in Wanda’s hand.

“You should drink some of that, make sure you stay hydrated. The Quintet shouldn’t be too long,” Natasha tells her softly.

Natasha looked at the bottle herself before she nodded, a slight strain along her neck before she moved the mask off of her mouth. It was only when she set the mask on her lap that she realized the red streaks against the outer plastic. Her brows furrowed for a moment before her eyes went to her hands and she immediately felt something in her chest sink. Her gaze moved to the hand holding her water bottle and realized that they reflected the same view. 

Her finger were red with her blood, nails bent back and broken or chipped while some of the skin still had slight open wounds. The image of slashing her fingers desperately against the walls of her prison flashed into her mind for a few seconds and Wanda cringed, closing her eyes for a moment to try and escape it before she opened her eyes again.

She stares at her hands for a moment. She wasn’t exactly vapid about her appearance, but she knew that with how damaged the nails were and that the wounds would leave some scarring, they would be a reminder of what she went through.

“We’ll fix that later,” Natasha promises in a soft voice. Wanda forces her eyes away to look up at her and sees the sympathetic look on Natasha’s face.

Wanda gulps as best she can before she nods and forces herself to move on. She takes the water bottle in both hands and twists the cap, feeling the soreness in her fingers now. Once it’s off, she fights the sudden overwhelming nausea once she brings it to her lips so she can open them. She slowly lets the water pool in, forcing herself not to gag as it swishes around in her mouth before running down her throat like a stream. After a few seconds, she pulls the bottle back and takes a breath. It was a nice feeling to have her tongue wet and not feeling like dry fuzz in her mouth.

Taking a few breaths, she blinks in an empty gaze in front of her before she carefully twists the cap back on.

“That help?” Sam asked.

Wanda thought for a moment before shaking her head. She felt tired, numb, but not light headed. 

“It feels….suppressing,” Wanda admitted in a small voice.

Natasha and Sam took a quick glance at each other before looking back down at her.

“Like, your powers?” Natasha asked.

Wanda nodded. Everything in her body felt…foreign, almost. Like it wasn’t hers and she was a guest. The more she tried to feel her powers, the more she felt like she was hitting against a soft wall or feeling more tired. She didn’t know why she couldn’t use them while she was down there, why she couldn’t just conjure her power to blast things out of her way while she flew out. The more she thought back to those moments though, even if the shivers slowly crawled up her spine again at the memories, she remembered that her powers weren’t even a thought to her. Her mind had been in such intense panic and fear that they imprisoned her to feeling her own body. She looked back down at her bloody fingers. She didn’t feel that, didn’t feel her injured shoulder or ankle even though she walked on it and wrapped her arms around Tony.

She couldn’t feel anything.

“That’s normal,” Sam promises her. “You went through an incredible adrenaline shock and relived a traumatic event. It might take you a little bit to feel yourself again.”

Natasha nods in agreement and after a few moments, Wanda did as well. Her one hand slowly comes to reach up to hold her heart shaped locket again before taking in a breath.

“I want to go home,” she told them.

“The quinjet should be here any second. Once we get you checked out at the Compound your bedroom will be the next place we go,” Natasha tells her. 

Wanda nods, blinking a few times again. Sam’s brows furrowed slightly.

“Are you feeling tired, Red?” He asks.

She pauses for a second before admittedly nodding her head.

“You’re crashing. It’s normal for what you went through both mentally and physically, and it’s actually a bit of a good sign that your body is starting to stabilize itself again, but you need to stay awake, okay? Like the nurse said, you might have a head injury,” Sam tells her.

Wanda nodded again, letting out a soft sigh before moving to quickly uncap the water bottle again and taking a drink. She felt the sudden thirst again, and because it might help in keeping her awake. It was an interesting feeling, getting all her senses back only to feel exhausted and numb from the inside.

She takes her last gulp and goes to twist the cap back on before she hears a familiar whirling overhead getting louder and louder.

“I think that’s our ride,” Natasha commented, giving one last nod to Sam before walking out from under the tent, directing police officers and civilians away so that they can make a space for the landing. Wanda stares after her before the wind around her increases slightly. She sees the quinjet slowly start to land at a safe distance from the medic tent, Natasha helping to direct while the officers were trying to make a bigger clearance area. 

Once the quinjet made its landing, soon the ramp was lowered as well. Wanda almost jumped as she watched a few medics, only identifiable from their white uniforms by the association logo. Wanda didn’t know whether they did it as a precaution or somehow Natasha managed to get a message to them but they came down with haste with a wheelchair.

The redhead felt something bubbling in her stomach again when the small group seemed to swarm her. Her brain had trouble focusing on all of their voices as they talked to each other, sometimes she was sure it was to her but it felt like her brain was fumbling her thoughts again. When she felt their hands on her, she cringed again before Sam and Natasha’s voice amongst the mix calmed her again and she let them guide her carefully to the chair. 

She feels a little more disassociated as someone pushes her towards the quinjet. Moving her head, she looks up to see it was Sam and feels calmer knowing that both of them were still with her.

Leaving the warmth and light of the sun, Wanda tensed slightly again in the darker confinement of the quinjet before feeling it vibrate and lift again. Immediately she felt the doctors turn their attention to her, one of them moving to try and put something on her finger, another trying to get a mask on her again and when Wanda cringed again, she was relieved to hear Natasha’s voice through her unnerved mind.

“Slow down. She’s stable, she just needs to get looked over,” the redhead’s wasn’t quite a warning but it wasn’t completely free of an underlying caution either. 

Wanda felt relieved again as the crowd around her thinned to just three. The head of the white uniform team stayed, carefully putting a type of clip on her one finger and soon the area was filled with soft beeping from a machine. Then another breathing mask was placed against her face and this time she forced herself to stay still as they secured it around her head. 

As the nurse seemed to quickly look over her, the feeling of the quinjet now flying through the air, Wanda tried to relax while hands moved about her body and tried to assess her injuries. She was on her way to the Compound. Sam and Natasha were with her and she knew the others would be coming around soon. Her hand comes back up and she holds the heart charm in her hand again but this time loosely in reassurance. They hadn’t left her behind, hadn’t left her there. She would be okay, and knew she would be as long as she had them. 


End file.
